chan file animation tip using XSI

[JimB]

Just a quickie, if you want to edit the curves of an animated parameter and own another 3D app that has a means of exporting an animation to a .chan file (in my case XSI, so I've no idea what's out there for other apps):

I like to use Johnnyboy's xsi2chan jscript. It's straightforward and no hassle; just remember to change the scaling from 10 to 1 when the output dialog pops up.
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=246.msg1815#msg1815 (after downloading, change the suffix from .txt to .js)

In Terragen, do your setup and note what you like in terms of the parameters settings.
Go to XSI and create a new camera.
Un-parent the Camera from the Camera Root, and delete the Camera Root which is not needed for this.
Animate the camera's X translation to the values you want in Terragen, and edit the animation curve.
Load xsi2chan in the XSI script editor, select the camera and run the script. Change the scaling to 1, and export the .chan file.
In Terragen, go to the animated parameter, click on the Animation button and Import the .chan file you just made.

That's it.

The .chan file import for a single parameter in Terragen will load the first column from the .chan file, which is the X translation. I'm sure this could be adapted for use with any 3D app, or even 2D app, if a .chan export option is there.

[bigben]

You could do the same thing with Terranim or Campath although it may be easier with the Y camera parameter if you want to use the graph to edit the curve.  I convert TGS scripts to CHAN (tabulated text) using a word macro with pre-recrded search and replace terms. For a single value all you need is columnn of values and then pad out the other columns with zeros in a spreadsheet app.

[JimB]

Not sure it's the same thing, Ben, unless you can tweak curves and animation in Terranim or Campath like you can in XSI, or the equivalent, while getting a realtime visual sense of the animation timing.

[bigben]

You can tweak the elevation more easily than anything which is why I suggested using Y instead of X

[rcallicotte]

Wow, this is cool.  Next thing on my list of things to try.

Thank you both.